I LOVE Christmas! I have a feeling it will be even more fun now there’s a little one in the house (even if she’s heading for Father Christmas’ naughty list due to her current refusal to sleep ever). Of course I couldn’t possibly buy her a Christmas stocking so a bit of 3am pinterest pattern searching was in order.
I used this one for size and this one for lining technique.

And then I started taking

or

der

s!

A couple of friends requested present sacks so using this tutorial, but the whole width of the fabric I made these.

I learnt a new technique too – french seams.

I just didn’t want fraying seams on something that will be pulled about by kids every year.

I have been considering saying goodbye to this blog. I haven’t written anything in such a long time, and have barely made anything since July. It seems as M gets older I have less and less time. Looks like she’s always going to be a demanding baby. Whilst I decide here is a roundup of the summer’s projects:

I was commissioned to make a romper out of the tropical fabric for a friend’s daughter. She’s tall so I lengthened the body 4cm at her mum’s request. Luckily it fitted and she looked great in it.

I was also given some cool, 80s vintage fabric by a friend’s mum who was clearing out. I used the bottom half of the romper pattern to make some bubble trousers. I love them! They’ve even had compliments from strangers!

I made M some stretch trousers perfect for crawling using this pattern.

Next? Well two months ago I started a cardigan for M to wear with the reversible Christmas and birthday dress I’m planning to make. And she’ll need a Christmas stocking… but it’s anyone’s guess whether these things will be achieved!

I recently bought a new baby carrier as the stretchy wrap isn’t much good for a weak mummy and a big chubby baby combo. This coincided with her starting to chew on everything so it was definitely important to make some suck pads.

I had asked for extra material for my custom made Sleepy Nico so I could make some. I used this tutorial but I added a layer of pul too. I also got aome kam snap pliers so i could add poppers instead of velcro. Apparently an eight or nine year old should be able to use these so it figures that with my weak hands I needed help from the man about the house!

I am now looking for more things to add poppers to, so when we almost lost the teether chick to the streets I made a couple of toy save clips.

Then I made a few more for other mums at the local baby group! I used these instructions because I wanted to make sure they were safe to use.

Ages ago I took a(nother) trip to fabric rehab in Dedham – tis both a blessing and a curse to live close to such a good fabric shop – to buy some incredibly garish summer fabric with toucans on it. I am fully aware many people will think this is disgusting but ha, I like bright stuff and I don’t care!! It reminds me of a crazy jumpsuit I had when I was 9 or 10….

Anyway, I wanted to make a basic sundress. To me a sundress is something you wear when it is really hot (this definition is another hangover from childhood) so needs to be a bit loose and really comfortable. I trawled Pinterest and found this set of instructions. Hers is made with jersey but I thought I could make it work with a woven cotton – though I did get a bit nervous and do some very small seam allowances. Even I think a maxi dress in this fabric would be a bit much so I based the length on another dress in my wardrobe.

I also didn’t want to use a ribbon for the straps so I made a tie from the fabric itself. After the annoyance I had trying to turn the tubes for the romper straps the right way out, I sewed a strip of the selvedge inside the tube and pulled this to help turn it the right way out. Much easier.

I am pretty happy with the results, it just needs a nice belt to make sure it isn’t a sack and I’m ready for the sunshine!

*I’ve had this post waiting for over a month for me to take a photo where the dress isn’t creased from being pulled about by a baby – that’s clearly never going to happen so here it is anyway! *

Another go with a Sew Sweet Patterns pattern! This one is the Harper dress. Again I found it easy to print out (though I did have to learn about layers in acrobat) but then I had a few problems. The pattern states that the 6-12 month size fits on half a yard of fabric, following some shopping at an American retailer on Etsy I had some half yards rather than half metres, and it doesn’t!

It only works if the back is cut out length ways on the fabric, which I did in the end but does cause slight pattern direction problems, and probably other ones I don’t even understand.

Anyway, it was easy to sew up and soon it was time to learn a new skill – buttonholes! I struggled to buy buttons, I can’t quite believe the local fabric shop had a whole wall of buttons and they were all nasty plasticky crap. I got some in a charity shop in the end. After taking advice from my mother in law, and a couple of trial runs on scrap fabric, I was ready to take the plunge. I am no longer scared of buttonholes!

I am so pleased with this dress I already have plans and fabric for a couple more. She’s going to look so cute in it!

There’s just one slight problem. .. Mindful of all the mums at baby groups who tell me she’s huge I tried it on her. It fits now at four months! And the armholes are a little tight. I see some hacks coming on.